Biology
by Xx-Twitch-xX
Summary: Max and Fang get an interesting lesson in their biology class about DNA and recombinant life forms. Takes place during School's Out Forever. One shot.


So yes, I said I was leaving the fandom like over a year ago. And yes I haven't been around. But I had this idea and it was too wonderful to pass up. This is extremely short but it's funny and I really hope you guys like it. Or are at least happy to know I'm alive or something.

Maximum Ride isn't mine. All that.

* * *

Max hated biology.

No, no. That wasn't right. She hated _school_, and biology was part of school.

But she still hated it. All the science talk gave her the creeps.

At least she got to sit next to Fang and communicate silently with him through strategic glances and shoulder movements. He was way better at getting full sentences across that way, but she'd had a lot of practice in this class and was getting really good at it.

Max winced at the loud _screech _as the teacher pulled down the projector screen, and rolled her eyes as about half the class asked if they were watching a movie.

"No, for the last time, no movies in this class," the teacher said. "We're going to be learning about restriction endonuclease and how it can be used to literally _change life as we know it_." At least _she_ seemed excited about the prospect of teaching the class about something that sounded like a different language to Max.

Fang turned his head a fraction of an inch and raised an eyebrow a little more than a millimeter.

Max shrugged in return, answering his _Endonucle-what?_ question with an equally confused, _No clue._

The teacher started off by showing a picture of a mouse with a human ear grown into its back. "Now, this isn't even the most amazing thing scientists have accomplished by using restriction enzymes, or endonuclease, to create recombinant life forms." This teacher seemed genuinely amazed by this. Not disgusted, or concerned.

Or very _very_ uncomfortable, like Max was starting to feel.

From the corner of her eye, Max could see Fang tense up almost immediately at the mention of 'recombinant life forms'. She couldn't sit still anymore; she could feel the adrenaline pumping through her system, telling her that she needed to get the _hell_ out of there. But it was school, no one could hurt her here, right? Right. She took a deep breath and gripped the sides of her desk, watching her knuckles turn white. She'd have to get through this.

She heard Fang's voice come from next to her. "But isn't the mouse in pain?"

"Good question, Nick! Since the ear was actually grown as a part of the mouse's body, it isn't causing the little guy any pain," the teacher grinned and clicked to the next slide, but Fang wasn't finished.

"Can it survive like that?"

"Yeah, mice aren't designed to have _ears_ growing on their backs," Max added on, raising her hand but not waiting for the teacher to call on her. "Speaking of which, could it even hear out of the thing?" The class tittered at Max's question.

"Um, well I'm not sure how long the mouse lived after that, and I don't think it could hear—,"

"Then what was the point of it?" a guy across the room asked, and Max nodded. She could see Fang smirking from the corner of her eye. He seemed to be relaxing just a bit, which made the tension slowly ease from her shoulders. Besides, if anything happened, Fang was here. He was her right hand man; they'd be fine.

The teacher took a deep breath. "The point," she said, looking across the class, "was to demonstrate that this could be _done_. That a scientist could combine DNA from two different life forms and make something completely new." She finally looked at the new slide, something about E. coli. "Scientists haven't progressed much past combining the DNA of two different plants—,"

Max's hand shot up into the air.

The teacher sighed. "Yes, Max?"

"You said that they just do the recombinant whatever on plants and stuff. So say I wanted to combine human and… say bird or wolf DNA. That would be totally impossible?" Next to her, Fang exhaled loudly through his nose—his version of bursting out into laughter. Either that or warning her to shut the _hell_ up. Probably the latter, but Max still wanted to know.

"Right you are, Max. Using this technique on humans would require years upon years of research. I don't think that will happen for a _very _long time."

At that point, Fang apparently couldn't hold it back any longer. He burst into loud laughter, almost falling out of his seat, and Max was quick to join him in laughing so hard she almost cried.

Sure, laughing at the teacher's lesson on restriction whatever-it-was had landed them in detention for the rest of the day, but it was totally worth it.

* * *

So I took a bio class last semester and we spent like a week talking about recombinant life forms and Maximum Ride was all I could think of. So I wrote this.

I hope you liked it!

In case you cared, I'm accepting beta requests at the moment :)


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